The fiance of Royston author Helen Bailey has been jailed for life for her murder and must serve a minimum of 34 years in prison.

Ian Stewart, 56, of Baldock Road, Royston, slowly drugged her for months with sleeping drug Zopiclone before murdering her and dumping her body, together with her dog Boris, into the cesspit below the garage at the couple's £1.5 million home.

Stewart denied murder, fraud, preventing a lawful burial and three counts of perverting the course of justice – but jurors found him guilty yesterday (Wednesday) after a six-week trial at St Albans Crown Court.

Sentencing him on Thursday morning, Judge Andrew Bright said: "Whilst we will never know whether you had an additional motive for killing a woman who loved you and wanted to be your wife, this is a murder for gain with aggravating features which make it difficult to think of a more heinous crime.

"I sentence you to a minimum term of 34 years. I acknowledge you will be 90 years of age before you become eligible for parole, but I am not inclined to reduce the minimum term in light of your age."

To run currently with his life sentence, Stewart was also sentenced to 18 months for fraud, three years for preventing a lawful burial and a further three years, two years and two years for three counts of perverting the course of justice.

Jurors took less than six hours to reach a decision.

The prosecution said Stewart murdered Ms Bailey, "probably by suffocation", between 10.51am and 2.30pm on Monday April 11, 2016.

Stewart reported the author missing on April 15. Her body was found by police three months later.

He then claimed that two men named just Joe and Nick killed and disposed of Ms Bailey's body in the cesspit in a bid to frame him.